Many business organizations have developed sophisticated user interfaces to facilitate the completion of processes such as sales processes, product design processes, processes associated with providing services, etc. Typically, such processes require substantial data entry and retrieval. Organizations may build the user interfaces that facilitate the completion of such processes using a set of screens and viewing components (e.g., views and applets) that expose a pre-defined set of fields in a pre-defined user interface metaphor.
As user interfaces become increasingly rich and complex, however, performing standard operations such as creating an account, creating a service request, creating a quote, accessing a price list, creating a business opportunity and following a process to the successful completion of an order becomes increasingly challenging. A standard task may be associated with a steep learning curve because the functionality that corresponds with the task is buried somewhere within sub-tabs of viewing components. Sometimes, organizations have no choice but to provide extensive training for employees, which can be costly and time consuming for the organization. Also, because the preferred method for completing a task (e.g., the “best practice”) may be unclear throughout an organization, the organization may experience less than desirable results with respect to the completion of tasks due to inconsistencies in the way employees within the organization perform certain tasks.
The completion of tasks within an organization may be further complicated by the use of multi-task processes requiring a division of tasks among two or more individuals within the organization. For example, in the context of a sales quote, a sales agent may be responsible for the task or step of creating a quote, while a sales manager may be responsible for the task or step of approving that quote. While the sales agent may manually provide notice to the sales manager once the quote is ready for approval, providing such notice adds another unnecessary step to the task or and increases the likelihood that the results of the overall process will suffer from inconsistencies and inefficiencies. Moreover, when providing such notice is required, it becomes difficult to retain coherence between a particular task and the instructions required to complete that task.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have an easy-to-use facility that provides in-line support to users as they complete tasks ranging from simple to complex and allows various individuals involved in completing a multi-task process to receive notice of a task as soon as the task becomes available or necessary.